Okay, I remembered to reply.

I think it's a good idea to keep the option for fluorescent lights, even if you do switch to MVB's. I do recommend MVB's simply because they produce so much light intensity and more UVA than tube lights. It is thought that these lead to much more active lizards and I agree with this.

At any rate, with melamine and MDF sheeting being 49" wide, you can crosscut it and make a cage with a 49" interior length, therby leaving enough room for most 4' light fixtures. This is what I would do and increase the front-to-back depth of the cage in order to provide more space. In general it is cheaper to add floor space by increase the depth rather than the length.

However, there is an exception, and that's the readily available imported baltic birch plywood that comes in 5' x 5' sheets. Nice stuff and priced very well for the quality. It is light colored and looks very good with a coat of blond, de-waxed shellac and a top-coat of waterborne polyurethane.

It will still be more expensive than melamine but it does look nice and allows you to make a larger cage with a 60" x 30" floor which is a very nice size.

But high quality melamine is also nice and comes in tan, black, and even maple grain colors. Hard to beat the price and quality of melamine despite its other disadvantages.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

[ Show Entire Thread ]